Joseph Amon and colleagues discuss the challenges of conducting human rights research in settings where local research ethics committees may favor the interests of the state over the interests of research participants.

Original Source

Surveying women and children from refugee camps in Algeria, Carlos Grijalva-Eternod and colleagues find high rates of obesity among women as well as many undernourished children, and that almost a quarter of households are affected by both undernutrition and obesity.

Lieven Huybregts and colleagues investigate how supplementing a general food distribution with a fortified lipid-based spread during a seasonal hunger gap in Chad affects anthropometric and morbidity outcomes for children aged 6 to 36 months.

Kathryn Dewey and Mary Arimond discuss new research that assesses the effect of blanket provision of ready-to-use supplementary food to children at high risk of malnutrition in Chad, and highlight some of the challenges of investigating the efficacy of supplementary foods for malnourished children.

As the world urbanizes, global health challenges are increasingly concentrated in cities. Currently, over 80% of the population in Latin America already lives in cities. The African urban population is projected to double in the next decade and China has urbanized in thirty years at a rate it took Europe and North America a century. Rapidly growing new cities and increasingly segregated older cities in the global north and south are contributing to health inequities.

Aaron Kesselheim and colleagues investigate conflict of interest disclosures in articles authored by physicians and scientists identified in whistleblower complaints alleging illegal off-label marketing by pharmaceutical companies.

Original Source

Technically feasible and cost-effective interventions exist to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality. This potential has not been fully realised due to the failure of health systems to improve the delivery and uptake of these priority interventions, particularly amongst the most vulnerable women and children. Underfunded investments in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) are part of the impediment, but unspent funds in a diversity of resource-constrained settings reflect a common problem of low absorptive capacity and the challenges of implementation at the local level.

Willem Takken and colleagues argue for the expansion of insecticide monotherapy in malaria control by taking lessons from agriculture and including more sustainable integrated vector management strategies.

David Osrin and colleagues report findings from their cluster-randomized trial in Mumbai slums that evaluated whether facilitator-supported women’s groups improved perinatal outcomes.

Original Source

In an article that forms part of the PLoS Medicine series on Big Food, Corinna Hawkes and colleagues provide a perspective from South Africa on the rise of multinational and domestic food companies, and argue that government should act urgently through education about the health risks of unhealthy diets, regulation of Big Food, and support for healthy foods.